In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of obedience in the lives of believers. He encourages the audience to be obedient children and to not conform to their former sinful desires. The preacher also highlights the power of God in overcoming sin and the sacrifice of Jesus to put away sin. He urges the listeners to strive for holiness, as Jesus will be revealed and they should be prepared to see him in all his glory.

We'll turn to scriptures, beloved, shall we? I believe God wants me to talk to you tonight about His holiness. And not just His holiness as in God, but His holiness for us. And I want to come on to a familiar section that I seem to remember, it must have been years ago now, we looked at before in this room, but as God has brought it back to my with some power and insistence, I want to share again with you in this wonderful truth. I'm always thrilled when I remember, as we have, I'm sure, thought among ourselves and individually, that tonight the blessed ones are falling down before Him and they're saying holy, holy, holy. That's what they're saying. They're not saying blood, blood, blood, they're not saying grace, grace, grace, they're not saying power, power, power, they're not saying anything else, apparently. We're told that they have no rest, day nor night. They say holy, holy, holy. What an impression, for this is the thing that they notice most of all. Perhaps if it was just sinners saved by grace, they might talk about the blood and all sorts of things like that, but I suppose these who see deeper into God than that know why the blood was shed, because of God's wondrous holiness, why it needed to be shed. And you know, beloved, one of the glorious things of God that we need to know is this, that it's really what He gets from it all that's the important thing. See, when we come to God, we're in such need, we're in such desperate plight, we're tied up in this and we're tied up in that, we're in such awful conditions that all we think about when we come to God really is, oh Lord, I'm so needy, please do this for me, please do that for me, please do the other for me, indeed the Gospels are full of this and God in His marvellous grace gave full opportunity for it and the people could cry out and say Lord come and heal my daughter, Lord give me my sight back, Lord heal my arm, Lord do this, Lord do that, you see. And it's right enough and this is really the low level on which we come. And then God moves us up from that, I hope He does anyway, and instead of us thinking what we get out of it, we then begin to get our eyes changed away from self. And you know it would be a terrible thing if Christianity was only a subtle means of getting us self-centred. It would be a terrible thing if it was only a religious and good way of still getting us to think about ourselves, Lord I need you to help me in my thought life, Lord please do this for me, please supply my bread, please give us enough money to build a conference centre, please do this and please do that and please do the other, and you see, to us it's alright and He never complains. It's a wonderful place when at last we get free of self altogether in the spiritual realm and we begin to get an insight into it from God's angle. For you know that man is a sort of a very late comer in the universe, you understand that don't you? There was God and the cherubim and the seraphim, after that there was a universe and there was a heaven and earth and there were stars and there was vegetation and there were animals, we even came after the animals, that's where silly, silly old what's-the-name-Goddy's-idea-about-evolution from, silly as anything, you see and so man came last and in the scheme of things, and I'm not one of those people who think of trillions of billions of years in all these things, my brain doesn't stretch to all that, I prefer to talk about days of creation, I don't know what you do, you can outdate me if you like, I'm not bothered about that, as long as we can agree to differ, that's alright, I'd rather you didn't differ because I think you're wrong, but never mind, you think I'm wrong, so that's alright, we'll understand each other, it's good to be wrong at times, and well here we are and yet God thought about us and we have marvellous sermons preached to us about God thinking about us and so on and he did and it's lovely, but do you know what his hope is? That we'll think about him, that's one of his hopes, and one of the lovely things, this is only preamble, I'll come to it in a moment, one of the, sometimes my wife says to me, sometimes I think I wish you'd get on with it dear, why should I? I can take two hours tonight, there's no reason why I shouldn't, not on my side, if there is on yours, you can get up and walk out when you're sore, but this is one of the lovely things I like about the book of Hebrews, it starts God you see, and then when you go right through the book, it finishes up in the end of the book, in the last chapter and it says, let's go forth to him without the camp, just go forth to him, that's all, just go forth to him, without the camp, bearing his reproach, that's it, what are you going to him for? Oh, nothing, we just go to him, that's the tragedy, they've always got something to come to Jesus for, I know that's bad grammar, but it puts the thing in our mind, they've always got something about which they want to come to Jesus, oh I must bring this to him, I must take this to him, it'd be lovely if the one hanging on the cross outside the camp, yet in this sense, could really think we came to him for himself alone, hallelujah, wouldn't that be lovely, you know tonight, I believe that's what God wants us to get, hold on, think of these lovely ones there, they're just giving the impression, that which they see, this is the thing that strikes them, holy, holy, holy, the terrific impact upon these glorious ones, is this the impact that God makes on you, is it, are you so close to him that you can see it, is it so real to you, that above everything else, when all needs have been met, and when everything else has been dealt with, and you can see him, holy, holy, holy, holy what, holy, holy, what are you saying that for, that's all I can feel, that's all I can see, that's all I'm sensible of, holiness, holiness, glory, in the first chapter of first epistle of Peter, first chapter of Peter's first epistle, verse 15, as he which hath called you is holy, be ye, so be ye holy, in all manner of conversation, and that as you will know, is the old English word for behavior, or manner of life, in all the manner of your life, whether it be in a child's manner, or a youth's manner, or a grown-up's manner, in a girl's manner, or a woman's manner, in a boy's manner, or a man's manner, in a sweetheart's manner, in a husband's manner, in a father's manner, in a mother's manner, in all manner of life, you are to be holy, praise God, it's not just your life, but the manner of your life, because it's the manner of God's life that strikes them as being holy, it isn't that he lives, it is the way he lives, the relationship in the Trinity is holy beyond words, as they see one another, and hear one another, and handle one another, and live in one another, in love sublime, holy, holy, holy, so be ye holy, will you, in the working manner of life, will you, in your public manner of life, in your private matter of life, in all manner of your life, will you be holy, absolutely holy, as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy, in all your manner of life, because it's written, be ye holy, for I am holy, and this is the reason, a great basic reason, beloved, why you should be holy, because God is, for no other reason, no rewards for it, no, well, if you're holy, you'll have a higher seat in heaven, God just thought that you'd want to be holy, because he is, isn't that lovely of him, isn't that lovely, because it's written in the book, he thought that because it was written in the book, you'd want to be holy, isn't that lovely, aren't you glad that when he says be holy, he doesn't say, if not, and wave a big stick at you, he really knows how to treat people, doesn't he, set them the highest, hallelujah, just tell them that I want them to be holy, Peter, of course he told Moses, he said to Moses, you tell them, I want them to be holy, Moses, that's what I want, praise God, and they'll want to be holy, just because of that, you know, God's wonderful, isn't he, he's absolutely wonderful, I want you to notice that he never uses threats, he never gives dark hints, nothing like that, he has no whips, and no scorpions, he just plainly, simply, wonderfully thinks that you'll want to be holy, because he is holy, do you think he's honoured you or dishonoured you in that, do you think he's wise or unwise in that, I'll tell you what I think, I think he's ever so wise, but listen, beyond his wisdom, his love, his great love, you know, I'm a father, I'm a grandfather now, and one of the loveliest things, I would love to think that I only just need say to my daughters, do this, dear, and they do it, just because I asked them, that's right, and I'd like to know that they thought, well, dad asked me, see, I'm going to do it, and if I didn't ask them for something beyond their power, they would do it, and God hasn't asked you for something beyond your power, you can be holy as he is holy, you can be holy as God is holy, he doesn't say, I want them to be holy according to the standard of the church or the teaching of the denomination they belong to, he hasn't said, I want them to be holy according to this man's interpretation or that group's interpretation, I want them to be holy as I am holy, glory be to God. now, that, beloved, is designed by God to inspire such loyal response, that you'll say, oh Lord, that's what I want, glory, and this, you know, is the leaving behind of all wordliness, it's the leaving behind of all sin, it's the leaving behind of all self-centeredness, it's the leaving behind of everything, to be holy as God is holy, I mean, if God only said, now, be as holy as Paul, mind you, Paul was the most holy man, or if he said, now, you'll be as holy as St. Francis of Assisi, I don't know anything about him, I must confess my really abysmal ignorance of St. Francis of Assisi, I'm much more familiar with Paul and John, but if he'd said this, be as holy as Madame Gayle, well, I mean, this isn't human, this isn't human at all, it's divine, certainly divine, it's heavenly, it's original, it's unique, isn't it? You correct me if you think I'm wrong, if you think I'm living in a dream world, I've come to realize that everything less than this is the dream world, this is the reality, if you can dream along thinking you can be as holy as some earthly standard, of course you'll finish up in a mess, but if you come up with faith and believe that you can be holy as God is holy, you'll touch reality. Now let our hearts come, and let us all be given to this, for God shall not water down anything to suit us, God shall not lower the standard, God forbid that we should, Amen. Let's lift the standard right up, shall we? Anybody in disagreement with me, here tonight? Because you see, I get into serious trouble when I preach like this, people don't like this, this is one of the things I get into real trouble about, but Hallelujah, what does it matter? It's all written in the book, and I want you to come with me, even if you come saying, oh God, I failed here, well blessed be the name of the Lord before we get out of the room tonight, indeed, as you hear the precious word coming over to you in the power of the spirit, you can open up your own hearts and all your lives and God will do it. One thing he does require of us though, is hinted at in verse 14, obedience, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy. And God is reckoning on us being obedient children, and if you and I are obedient, and remember seeing that I have mentioned the name of Paul, this was his secret, when upon one of the rare occasions he gave his testimony, for surprisingly enough, Paul was not always giving his testimony, if you read through the Acts of the Apostles, you will find the occasions upon which he gave his testimony, and there are decades in between, Paul apparently only gave his testimony when he was on trial for his life, have you noticed that? I mean, he didn't say, well, come on, we'll have a rally and we'll get Paul to come and give his testimony, well, you're a fallen film star, Paul, come and give your testimony, or something like, oh, no, it wouldn't be fallen, would it? No, it would be, but you know what I mean, this is the sort of thing, he only gave his testimony upon the rarest of occasions, and one of, well, you know why, don't you, because testimony is another subtle form of keep talking about yourself, what's happened to me, when I heard this, and when this happened to me, and when that happened to me, let's go forth right out of this camp, shall we? Let's go to him, but Jesus, Paul did say upon one occasion, he said, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, that was his secret, obedience, I was not disobedient, here's the heavenly vision, the thing that's been recorded for us, they say, holy, holy, holy, you may not have had a Damascus road, you may not have heard a voice talking to you, you may not have been in a trance in the temple, as Paul was once, and had a vision, it doesn't matter about that, we've got the vision of the glorious one recorded for us, they see him, face to face, be ye holy. If they could speak to us tonight, beloved, and they're not allowed to, they would say, be ye holy, for he is holy, but they can't stop to talk to us, so God had to give us apostles and prophets and pastors and evangelists and teachers, they're taken up breathlessly, day or night, with saying one thing, holy, holy, holy, and they're not saying it to you, they're saying it to him, and he wouldn't have a lie told to him, amen, that's what they see, that's the impression, that's the outshining of his glory, this is the impact upon the highest order of created beings, as it was then, cherubim, surrounding his throne, nearest to him, what a marvelous thing then, beloved, and if you and I will be obedient, and we will move and live in this tremendous thing, God will do it for us, but we can be holy as he is holy, who believes that, do you believe that, you really believe that from the roots of you, amen, I advise you to follow a practice with the Bible, that is, if in any place you find scripture, which tells you to be something you cannot be, from that moment you cease reading the Bible, it's rubbish, if it tells you to be something other than you can be, you should burn your Bible, we can't afford to be wrong one iota, it's got to be right, if I find God at fault here, I can't trust him about saving me, I've got to be able to trust God 100%, I've got to be able to do it, I must be, this must be absolutely perfect, beloved, now whether I attain to that perfection is another point, but when he comes on record, he's got to be honest and straight and faithful, he's got to be reliable, isn't that a marvellous thing, that we can come to God like this, he comes to us, I wonder if we are going to be found as reliable, Lord, I want to be holy, just as you are holy, alright, now let's have a look, there are in this chapter some reasons why we can be holy, as God is holy, reasons, beloved, which are set down here, and that if each one of us will take them to our hearts and receive them in full faith, whatever you've been in the past, whatever your manner of life has been, God will make you holy as he is holy, if you will, come this way, praise him, now, sometimes, or most times, when I think along these lines, you know, I like to start right at the beginning, and work out from the beginning, but tonight I'm going to start at the end, one of the great reasons why you and I should be holy is this, and let's look in verse 13, and this is the only way, God's not expecting you to be flabby now, because the verse starts off and says, gird up the loins of your mind, come on, sit up, do some thinking, you've got to gird up the loins of your mind, don't flop back and say, oh Lord, I'm one of these, I get a bit sick and tired sometimes, and people, they keep on praying this, you in your call, small call, and I in my prayer sort of business, you know, and they say, oh Lord, bless this corner of our vineyard, and I never, you know, they're always like that, oh Lord, you know how weak we are, and all this business, you'd never think the Bible had any exhortations to strict, you see, if you follow the logic of the scripture, it says, when I'm weak, I'm strong, so what are you yelling about, that's what the Bible says, that's right, when I am weak, then am I strong, and hallelujah, and God's strength is made perfect in weakness, so this is the extraordinary part about it, it's a complete paradox, so you'd better stop whining, you see, people are all, it seems to be their favourite text, you could know some people, you could plaster them all over the walls, that's what Mrs. So-and-so would be praying, that's what she thinks, that's what Brother So-and-so would be saying, that's what he thinks, you see, a man is known by his prayers, perhaps that's why some of you don't pray publicly, I don't know, but the great tragedy of it all, beloved, is that we've got the wrong conception of this all together, amen, gird up the loins of your mind, that's where it all starts, come on, stop this flabby thinking, stop this popular jellyfish approach, let's stop it, let's get down to God, and see what God has to say to us, there are some people who think we come from protoplasm, don't let Christians be like it, we're not evolutionists, think you're a lump of jelly floating about on this sea of something and I don't know what, gird up the loins of your mind, that's what the Lord says, are you doing that? Let's get down to it, it says, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, and it's definitely with that, that the exhortation to holiness is closely linked, be holy, why? Because, beloved, Jesus Christ is coming back again, hallelujah, it's in view of the second advent of Jesus Christ that you and I have got to be holy, amen, are you ready for that? There's going to be a great revelation of Jesus Christ, it doesn't only mean that he's going to be observable in the clouds, he is going to be revealed, him completely, his whole person and personality, his lovely, spotless, see-through-able nature, his transparency, his pure and perfect love, his wondrous uprightness, it's what, if I may say, transforms jelly into a vertebrate, his backbone of righteousness, his uprightness, amen, if I may put it that way, excuse me if my figures of speech don't fit into the usual pattern, but that doesn't matter much, this great, oh, we're going to see him, beloved, he's going to be revealed, and we're going to see him as he is, and he's holy, I'll tell you, beloved, he's holy, that holy one, and think of him, that blessed one had all sin put on him, and remained holy, holy, says the Hebrews letter, harmless, undefiled, isn't that lovely? and if you read higher up in this epistle, which we will do presently, I just want to refer you to it at the moment, it says that we've been begotten unto an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, there it is, this is our inheritance, you see, people get the wrong ideas about these things, we'll talk a little about that, about an hour's time, or something like that, but at the moment, Jesus is going to be revealed, beloved, he's going to be revealed, and beloved, when he's revealed, I want to ask you a question, are you expecting to see something in him that you've never seen? Jesus, I didn't know you were like that, I'm sorry, you're supposed to know what he's like, that's what all our salvation is, I never recognised this, I didn't know you were so wonderfully holy, I didn't know you had such marvellous love, and I just want to go cowering away somewhere, Lord, I always knew you were like that, and the sight of you is better than I ever thought, oh, I'm glad to leave my Bible behind, Lord, it couldn't even describe you in all your grandeur, I see you face to face now, I don't need any descriptions of you, you're better than I knew, and I knew you were wonderful, Lord, Hallelujah, this is it, when you see him, it's that blessed holiness, glory, and you're coming to Jesus, beloved, this is the wonder in all, this is the grace of God, this is his down stooping without condescension, without even the slightest tinge of condescension, but in utter grace and love, the down stooping of Jesus Christ to us is God's bringing you unto the ability to live in his thrice holy presence, Jesus Christ is God's easy way in, not by lowering any standards of course, Jesus Christ is God's comfortable way in, because when the Holy Ghost came, and he called the comforter, Jesus said he's another comforter, he was the first one, Jesus Christ is our comfortable way in, to, I'm the way he said, lovely, and we're going to see him, oh, you and I have got to be holy, Amen, because he's coming back, and it would be terrible, beloved, if when he comes back, the contrast between him and you is so great, that you'll call on the rocks and mountains to hide you, from the face of the Lamb, radiant in its holiness, glory, that's your first reason, but really it's the least of the reasons actually, it's the least of the reasons, I mean, if, and I think this is sometimes wrong with people, especially sort of second advent preachers, I'm not running any particular person down, except that I was brought up under it, I was brought up under second advent teaching, my what we didn't know about the second coming wasn't worth knowing, you see, but it was sort of put over the wrong way to us you know, now you must be holy, Jesus Christ might come back any minute, we were given a fear motive for being holy, you see, it's all wrong, it's all wrong, that's the least of the reasons, and certainly not the real motive for being holy, I mean, if my wife had to say to myself, now you behave yourself, your father will be in in a minute, well she's on the wrong leg, soon as father's absent, they'll play her up again, you see, I'll tell your father he's coming down the road, you see, well, I mean, you breed your troubles and serve your right, you young women aren't married yet, don't you do this if you get married, if your mothers have done it, then they were, they were a little bit off, praise God, this sort of fathers the hidden threat up the sleeve, I tell you beloved, Jesus is coming back now, you be holy, don't you let him catch you standing in a cinema, cure and all this, we used to get, we used to get, yeah, that's right, that's right, so this was all put out under the doctrine of separation, for frightenedness or something like that, not that I want to stand in a cinema, I gave that up nearly, I don't know how many years ago that gave me up, but that's not the point, you see, beloved, it's a wonderful thing to want to be holy, as Jesus Christ is holy, isn't it, and there's no reason why you shouldn't be, and I want to go back, look in, higher up in this chapter, there's another reason here why you can be holy, and it says this, that in verse 5, you, the last word of verse 4, you who are kept by the power of God, now this is another reason why you can be holy, because you, my beloved, can be kept by the power of God, kept, hallelujah, what does this mean, that God is prepared to keep you in exactly the same state as you were when you came out of his womb in new birth, only now you've grown, of course, and God never gives birth to unclean things, you can't get an unclean out of a clean, any more than you can get a clean out of an unclean, I hope that's sunk in, because there's a kind of a teaching about, that when you're born again, you're unclean, and you've got to go on and get holy after that, if ever there was a pernicious doctrine, it's that, as though God could beget an unclean child, as though he could, hallelujah, do we believe in new birth or don't we, do we believe in a sort of a patched up conversion condition or something, what do we believe in, hallelujah, he's able to keep us, tremendous, keep us in that same state, all the time, that's precious, now there's absolutely no reason, you see, he has power to keep you, you see, and it says here, it's linked with it, you're kept by the power of God, through faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed, there it is, Jesus is going to be revealed, now you're going to be kept ready to be revealed, oh, hallelujah, now God won't keep you in sin, ready to be revealed, God won't keep you in unholiness, ready to reveal your unholiness, you see, blessed be the name of the Lord, he's going to keep us, he's able to keep us in this glorious condition, beloved, isn't it marvellous that he can do that, you know, I understand that there are some grapes, you know, that they're so luscious, that they pick the bunch of them, and they're so wonderful, and they want to preserve them in the state in which they're picked, and they make special boxes, and they hang them down, make sure nobody touches anything, and, you know, handle with care sort of thing, and when they arrive at their destination, they've got the bloom on them, just as they were picked, they're kept in that condition, and delivered in that condition, now that's what God wants, anyway, beloved, he's so wonderful, but he wants to keep us, just like he begot us, like it all the time, he's not planned for you to live a kind of a life where you're up today, down tomorrow, you see, he's not planned for you a kind of life that's in sanctification tonight, and by about Friday, you're just about down in sin again, and that's not God's provision for us, beloved, he has power kept in the power of God, kept there, for really the Greek word there is in, it's not by, kept in the power of God, you've got to be kept in the power, amen, and God is able to keep you in the power, ready to be revealed, the same power that's going to reveal Jesus is the same power that's keeping you, his is going to be a power revelation and manifestation, and yours is a power life, kept in that power, oh Lord, linked by power to thee, I know that there's another thought in this Greek word kept, it means kept as with a military guard, garrisoned in the power of God, garrisoned, oh, the enemy can't get in, because you're garrisoned, that's what a garrison's for, isn't that right? Sure, I mean, either there or else God wasn't using right words, but I'm again one of these old-fashioned people that God, I believe God actually chose his words, that's why I've got no room for these modern paraphrases there, they're not choosing the right words at all, God chose his words, he doesn't want them paraphrased, he wants us to know what he actually said, and he uses his scholarship best who tells us exactly what God said, yeah, I beg of you to find out exactly what God said, I mean, this is right, isn't it? If you hear something that somebody else says, and you know, sort of this, that, and I say, now I want you to tell me exactly what he said, that's what I want to know. Why do you think they have what they call bugging devices? Why is there a Watergate scandal, and what's it all about? Tape recorders and all this, they want to know exactly what was said, and then they're able to come to the correct conclusions. Amen, isn't that right? If I'm talking out the back of my neck, you better stop me. Yeah, God said, God is kept garrisoned as with a military guard, and I tell you, God's military guard, oh, oh, hallelujah, have you ever met God's military guard? Have you ever met them? Well, let me tell you a story, it's true one, it's in the Old Testament, there was a prophet of the Lord, he was a really wonderful old man of God, and he had a young fellow with him, you see, and they were in a terrible state, the enemy was besieging them, and the young man said, ooh, what's going to happen, you see? And there was the old prophet of the Lord, all calm, because he never put his hand in his pocket, he stood there perhaps with his arms akimbo, or even behind his back, or he might even have lifted them to heaven when he said, oh God, open his eyes, and God opened his eyes, and this young man saw thousands of chariots of fire all around, guarding them. That's God's military guard, see, oh God, open everybody's eyes, let them see the God, hallelujah. What did that mean? Untouchable. He said, really, now please, don't tell me this, I have great difficulties. Oh, untouchable. He said, really? Yeah, yeah. Sorry this morning we never got right through the epistle of John, but had we got to the fifth chapter, this is what we would have read. It says, we know that he that is of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one touches him not. What's all this talk about the devil did this to me, the devil did that to me, the devil, who's the devil? You sure you aren't making the devil of your own? I mean, it's bad enough to have one, don't you make one? The scripture says, the scripture says, the wicked one touches him not. How about that? I tell you, hallelujah. Well, where do all your groans come from then, if you say you're a child of God, what's gone wrong? You mustn't write a bible of your own, and your testimony can't be relied on, if you don't talk about what the bible says. The wicked one doesn't touch him. Read it, you read 1 John 5, it's a marvellous chapter. And the Lord has got this thing straight for us, that we are being kept by this military God. There's no reason for you not to be holy, if you're being kept by the power of God, is there? What keeps a man then from being unholy? The power of God. Amen. Do you believe that? It isn't his own efforts. It's when he comes to see and rely on God's power. Not his own prayers, or anything like that, but God's power. Of course, if you're really in God's power, you'll pray alright. But it isn't your prayers that do it. Amen. The Lord shows us. And you see, there's other reasons here, beloved, why you should be holy. Let's work backwards, because who are these people who are kept? Well, beloved, these are the people that are kept. Let's look lower down the chapter. Verse 22. You have purified your souls in obeying the truth. See, that self-purification is always accomplished by obedience. You have purified your souls in obeying the truth. Did you know that obedience was a very purifying thing? And this is why so many people are impure, because they're disobedient. You can't be holy if you're not pure. You can't be pure if you're not obedient. You've purified your souls in obeying the truth, through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See, you can love unfeignedly when you're pure. See that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently. Glory be to God. Here's another reason why you can be holy. Because your heart's pure. If you haven't got a pure heart, you can't be holy. But when your heart's pure, you can be holy. When the thought and the imagination of the thought of the heart is pure, when the desires of your heart are pure, when the thought of your heart is pure, hallelujah, glory, that's it. Pure. Isn't that wonderful? And you know, beloved, all your life is coming out of your heart. You're living it right out of your heart. That's how you're living your life. We're all living our life out of our heart. And this is where it's all proceeding from. And inside this spiritual man who devours, there is a spiritual heart beating. There is a great spiritual center and source of life in us all. Your source of life is not a book, even though it's the Bible. Your source of life is your heart within you. And God is very wonderful. He gives you a pure, pure heart. New and pure. And then when you've got that, of course, you can love with a pure heart. Fervently, fervently, fervently. That's how you talk about things that are warm and hot. It's not like this thing about which the writer John the Revelator says about the Laodicean church. You're neither hot nor cold. I'm going to spew you out of my mouth. You make me feel sick. Fancy God talking like that. You'd never think of God saying he felt sick, would you? Mind you, he did say, I was in prison and you visited me. That's Jesus talking. I was naked, you clothed me. Here he's saying, you make me feel sick. You're neither hot nor cold. I'm going to spew you out of my mouth. You and I, we've got to love God with a pure heart, fervently. Amen. When our heart's pure, beloved, everything can be right then. Your motives are pure. Your thoughts are pure. Your imaginations are pure. Your intentions are pure. It's all flowing pure in you. Your affections are pure. Your desires are pure. Oh, it's wonderful to know that, when it's really happening in you, isn't it? Eh? Have you ever had this tremendous experience in your life? I want to tell you, that for me, real life began again, when I sought and found a new pure heart. Yeah, I did. That's my confession to you. And invariably, I can tell you, if you come to me with your problems and your real troubles, personality difficulties and things you're having in your life, I'll listen to you, beloved, and I'll listen tenderly, and in the end, some place, I'll tell you, that there's something wrong with your heart. So, you'll know beforehand. It's that heart, beloved. It's that heart. It's always the heart of the matter. Glory be to the Name of the Lord. Give a man a new pure heart. Old David knew this. You take Psalm 51. When he went wrong, got into sin, he didn't mess around. He said, Oh God, create in me a clean heart. That's what he said. He didn't say, Oh Lord, I had strong temptation. Oh Lord, the devil did this. Oh Lord, it was awful. And all this. He simply said, Oh God, create in me a pure heart, a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within me. Isn't this marvelous? There's no renewal of the spirit of a man until his heart is pure. Then his spirit is renewed. For renewal, beloved, is in the purity and in the holiness of God. God couldn't move to you and me, except He moved in holiness. Of course He couldn't. And these are the outgoings of His arms to us, beloved. To bring us right in to His own natural, basic, eternal state. I think God's wonderful about this. When I think of these things, whether I say them publicly or tell them to myself in the privacy of my thoughts, something always starts sort of melting at this level. You may not like me to go down here, but it does with me. I don't know what it does with you. It doesn't sort of start at this level. Something down here. Oh, glory be to God, my lovely Lord. He wants me to be like Himself. The meltings of His bowels. And He comes to me and He wants me to be like Him. Right deep down in the center of me where all the obstructions lay. Where all the difficulties were. Where all the knots were tied. Where all the perversions spring from. Where all the inspirings of our beings. Where all the motivatings of our actions. Where they lie and whence they spring. Oh, He knows. He knows, our blessed Lord. He's not wanting to start at thought level. He starts at bowel and heart level. That's where He starts. Amen. God a pure heart. Have you got a pure heart? Pure. Hallelujah. I love this tremendous thought. This heart purity, you see. Oh, this is so good. You see, let's have a look. There's no reason why this shouldn't happen to you. We're back now and this time we're coming up with a really familiar verse. And this is how it goes. It says, verse 18. You know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, you see. Nothing corruptible was in our redemption. Nothing. It has not degenerated. Hallelujah. You were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain manner of life, received by traditions from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot. You know, don't you, that you were redeemed with that precious blood, don't you? There wasn't a blemish on him. There wasn't a spot in our lovely lamb. He was foreordained to this before the foundation of the world, in the great, what would have been exclusive, but bless God, not exclusive, but certainly in the selective grace and person and being of himself. He set Jesus aside, this blessed lamb, for this. Ah, spotless, without a blemish on him. He came down here on this earth. This is the marvel about our glorious Jesus. If you could have looked at him as a man, you would have seen in the end blemishes and scars and spots and crustations of blood and great harrowing furrows down his back. You would have seen the spike mark marks in his head and the holes in his hand, and you wouldn't have been able to put a pin between blemishes and spots and filthiness and gore and all the rottenness of the crucifixion, beloved. Outwardly, but inwardly, he was spotless. Glory. Inwardly, he was spotless. Morally, he was upright. Glory. He was wonderful and transparent in his love. He was marvelous. Amen. Amen. Glory. Glory. I wonder what they did to him when they took him down off the cross. Nicodemus and Joseph, Aaron and Thea. They came with a hundred weight of spices. They couldn't do what they wanted to do. So they hastily, I praise God. If it hadn't been so near to the Passover, they would have mummified him. They would have disemboweled our Jesus. That's what they would have done. And they would have stuffed him up with spices. That's what they would have done. To preserve him. Dead. Oh, glory. And they were coming again on Easter Day. They got a lot more spices. They were really going to mummify this dead Jesus. That's what they were going to do. But he was alive. He was alive. And he was spotless. And he's all there. His bowels. His heart. Glory. He's alive. And he hasn't got a spot on him. That's why he rose from the dead. He was spotless. Marvelous. And you've been redeemed with his blood. There's no reason why you should have any sin in you. None at all. It's inexcusable. Oh. God showed you he won't have it. He prepared a man. His blessed son. Put all sin on him. And then got rid of it. Jesus is the lamb that bore away the sin. Hallelujah. That's him. That's the blood. We were redeemed with the precious blood. It wouldn't have been precious if it had been the blood of a sinner. It wouldn't have been precious if it had had spots and blemishes marking his character all through his life. It couldn't have cleansed us if it had had that. We would have said to him, physician, heal thyself. But praise his name. His promise is this glorious blood, beloved. Think of it. Think of it. He gathered them in the afternoon. He said, drink ye. Drink ye all of it. Why should you drink the blood of Jesus, beloved? So that it becomes your blood. If I may say so, in the veins of your inner man. I who have no power of producing or generating such blood to be the life flow of my inner man. I'm invited in the figure to drink his blood. So should he constantly supply me. And this is why God has placed this as a central thing in the church. This do ye. As often as ye drink it in remembrance of me. For you eat my flesh and you drink my blood. And so, weekly, if it be weekly, we do but typify symbolically that we're always taking on his flesh. And we're always taking in his blood. And the new man is there. With a new pure heart in him. Oh, and he's being God. He's kept in the power of God. The power that did away with sin. The power that rent the grave. The power. The power, beloved. The power. Oh, praise the name of the Lord. This is the revelation. The precious blood of Jesus. Without a blemish, without a spot. Verily he was foreordained before the foundation of the world and held back, held back for us. Once in the end of an age he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Amen. Oh. Manifest in these last days. See there. You see what it is, don't you? Days, plural. There was once in an end of an age when he appeared and put away sin in a thirty three and a half year span of life. But it's in these last days in which we're living he's being manifest in the spirit for us. In the whole days. Bless him. There isn't a day, beloved. There isn't an hour. There isn't a moment. There isn't a place. There isn't a need. But he's manifest in the spirit. Don't you see it? Don't you understand? Don't you know what it's all about? God said the old prophet, open his eyes. No wonder Paul prayed to the Ephesians and he said, I pray that the eyes of your understanding shall be enlightened. God raises up men that can render veils even off the scripture. For the words often veil. And the naked spirit and the wonder of it all is manifest. God intends it to be startlingly, vividly, gloriously manifest to your inner being until it tingles with the life and the fire and the glory of God. And you see it all and you're vividly alive and your death's left you. Utterly. And you're alive in the glory of it. You've been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb. And now since that death and resurrection he's manifest in his last days in the Holy Spirit. This is what it says in this great epistle, beloved. It says this in verse 9 that we are receiving the end of our faith. And the end of our faith is the salvation of our souls. Of which salvation? Now let's read it. The prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. Searching what? Or what manner of time? Days and time, you see, we're in this tremendous thing. What manner of time? He was ordained before the world was. All right. What manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Amen. Unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. That's the revelation. Nobody can preach the gospel. Nobody. Only the Holy Ghost. He's the preacher of the gospel. That's what he's come for. That's why a man must be filled with the Holy Ghost before he dare open his mouth. He's no preacher because he was trained. Hallelujah. The Holy Ghost is the preacher. The gospel's preached unto us by the Holy Ghost. And this is the gospel of the Holy Ghost. You're hearing it in your ears. And praise God that your ears are meant by God to be a direct channel down into your soul. This is what God's after. Isn't this marvellous? Oh, blessed be the name of the Lord. Isaiah preached the gospel to me. You see, the Spirit of Christ which is in him who's believed our report, he says. Isaiah preached the gospel to me. Hallelujah. The Spirit of Christ was in him for all those purposes. Hallelujah. Led as a lamb to the slaughter as a sheep before her shearers is done so he opened not his mouth. Oh, he was taken from prison and from judgment. Who's going to declare his generation? How can you declare the generation of Jesus Christ? He had an idea. He preached. He didn't understand. He said a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a child. Oh, there's no way. Marvellous beyond the mind of man. I cover my head. It isn't rising there. It comes from the Spirit. Amen. You see, and he's manifest in these last days for us who by him do believe in God. Hallelujah. Oh, I do praise the Lord for this, beloved. This is another reason why you can be holy. Look at the precious blood. How can a man gaze on that blood and live in sin? How can he do it? Unless he'd be like those that stood around the cross waiting for the opportunity to stamp it into the ground. But you dare not tread underfoot the Spirit of Grace. You dare not do that. Stamp the blood into the ground. Oh, praise the name of the Lord. You and I are to be holy. Holy. Holy. Holy. No excuses allowed thereof. And let's go further back. I started at the sort of outcome at the end. I'm going back in now. Let's keep going back in. And it says this in verse 23. Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth. This is the living seed. The Word of God that liveth and abideth forever the same. It's incorruptible, unchangeable. Amen. You see? The Word of the Lord, verse 25 endureth forever. And this is the Word. What's this? The seed of God is preached to you by the Gospel. The blood seed. The seed comes from the blood where birth is concerned. The great blood seed of God. This is why you and I can be holy. Have you been forgotten of God by God coming and speaking a direct word into your listening heart wide awake to receive more open than a pharaoh turned by a plow to receive a corn of wheat? Your heart opened up unto Him. Hallelujah. Born of incorruptible seed but the actual seed, the same seed from which Jesus was born spiritually I mean born again. That's how Jesus was born. An angel came with the Word of God to her. She conceived and Jesus was born. Hallelujah. Praise God. That's how people are born again by the Holy Ghost coming on and the Word that God speaks to them being conceived in their heart. Hallelujah. Praise God. Believe it. Glory be to God. Oh you can be holy the seed you've been born of is incorruptible like the blood, the blood's incorruptible the seed is incorruptible can't be corruptible. So if you insist on sinning after you've received this seed you're heading out to be a schizophrenic a split personality. That's the trouble. This is why all this wholesomeness this one integrated life it's all been lost. So a man is different at work than he is when he's saying Hallelujah in the morning meeting. You see. That's the tragedy. Beloved early in all manner of behavior. Oh this is it. It's so wonderful. It's got to be so natural because God is naturally holy. He's not holy by any artificial means. He's naturally holy. You can't be carnally holy but you can be naturally holy. What a wonderful thing it is. You're going to be holy. This seed in you beloved whereby God begot you unto himself is holy. Holy, holy. And God intends that it should come into all your life spirit soul and body so that you be a complete embodiment of holiness and your body and your soul be an expression of the holiness of your spirit within you. That's what God's intending. Isn't that wonderful? This is why we can be holy beloved. We couldn't be holy it would be just plain talk from God unless God had done this. But he's done it. Amen. He has hasn't he? He's done it for you hasn't he? Amen. That's lovely. Now you see we've come right from the end time manifestation we've come through being kept and we've come through the heart and to the blood we've got through here to the seed. Now where do we go from the word? Well in the beginning of the chapter Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers bless the Lord for the strangers not strangers to God but strangers on the earth I hope you're very strange to people and I hope you act in a peculiar manner so they think of advising the local health visitor about you or something like that I don't mean that but I hope you're a complete stranger. Amen. I can't understand I just don't understand these people that have come to live next door to us don't understand they don't go in for bridge parties they don't go in for great gulpings of coffee all over the place they don't drink cocktails and they don't they don't talk about going up for a show and they don't well you know strange people they haven't got a big colour television don't understand them they don't they well you know they're queer people I think they're religious do you know they have prayer meetings in their dorm room strange strange this is strange where do you live? don't seem to live anywhere Peter is very keen on this in case you thought this was a slip he's got it in the second chapter and he says I beseech you therefore as strangers and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul you see that's what he says Amen he's speaking to the strangers strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia elect, chosen according to the foreknowledge of God in holiness of spirit that's the other reason that's the first reason you can be holy now we've traced it back to its beginnings God chose in holiness of spirit that's where it started in the thought and in the choice of God and that's where Jesus came from that's where the blood came from that's where it all came from He chose right back in there this is why the Lamb was foreordained before the foundation Father chose He chose us in holiness of spirit there wasn't a sin in all His thoughts there wasn't an imperfection in all His imagination when He chose you He chose you perfect He chose you complete He chose you in holiness He decided He decided to beget a son the first son the eternally begotten the only begotten in the persons of the Godhead was chosen to be your Lamb and you were chosen to be begotten when, was it last year? was it was it five years ago? when was it? oh hallelujah He chose to beget us beloved in these last days but He chose us that was His thought so He puts it into the book will you be holy? why should I be holy? just because I am I don't want you to be a contradiction of my thought I don't want your state to be a denial of the things I've said and done I don't want your life to come short of the glory of God I want you to be holy will you be holy as I am holy? will you? this is God speaking to you will you? you can be holiness will bring it obedience will bring it the blood is here beloved the seed of life is here the thought of God is here and this is the beauty of holiness and the beauty of holiness for people of old was a tabernacle with gaudy colorings and gold shining and the soft golden light of the candle reflecting off a table that burned away in sweet scent before God God is incensing the place God is incensed with beauty notice that, what do you get incensed with? when you lose your temper what do you get incensed with? ugliness God is incensed with beauty His spirit is incensed and provoked by loveliness beauty gorgeous fragrance hallelujah lovely all mingled up in His glory will you be holy as Jesus as He is holy? will you be that? will you be beautiful? will you smell sweet? will you? will you let every every faintest tinge of corruption go God didn't want to smell corruption so He had a table there which all spoke of the beauties of Jesus it was marvelous He didn't even want to smell the smell of the animals and the sweat and the shouting or smell the smell of fire that was all outside I don't want that brought into my my tent leave that out of the game hallelujah in here glory and they said why this is the holy of holies that's why you've got the plurality you see holies of holies holy holy holy it's all all lovely is Jesus manifest to you? are you ready to say tonight Lord make me holy as You're holy I just want to be holy because You are Lord are you ready for that? if you haven't been beloved here's God's word to you you can be and He wants you to be Lord I just want to be there in line with that original thought well that's wonderful and how about being right according to that awful pain you say yes He must have suffered those thorns and nails and no Lord no I the pain of being made sin His sin was as much pain to us the thought the imagination of it that it made us sweat in the contemplation of it so that our sweat was like great drops of blood falling to the ground just to think of sin eh? if you sweat at the thought of it you wouldn't have to shed any tears as a consequence of it beloved you wouldn't need to repent with tears if you sweat with the thought of it that's right I'm talking to myself we could be holy as God is holy huh well there are some of the reasons I think possibly I could have told you others but I think probably our time's gone they're all in this chapter I haven't exhausted it He He may be coming back tonight the revelation may be decreed for tonight I don't know but it may be it may be He's going to be revealed and so are you it says so being kept ready to be revealed hallelujah ready to be revealed all going to be revealed everybody's going to see it what you are then because what you were is all gone if you've come to Jesus but it's what you are when you come hallelujah I know it's a glad God has slain buried my sin are you? but now you've got to live you've got to live